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Phpbb Tips

PhpBB Tips

I recently had to help a client better their PhpBB forum security without hindering certain groups. I do not use PhpBB myself, but the way it is coded is interesting. I had to get some help on this and the rest I added in.

First of all if you want to have CAPTCHA for all Members even registered ones, but not certain groups then do this:

Create Special Group

1. Login Admin Panel and select "Users and Groups"
2. Click "Manage Groups"
3. On right create a new Group called, "Special" or whatever name you want
4. Now in the fields that follow: Put group type as "Hidden" if you do not want others to know about it
5. Copy permissions from a group you want, possibly "Registered Users"
6. [Save], you should get a green success box.

Add Members To Group

1. Under General tab click on "Manage Groups"
2. On the right you will see a bar with the special group you created. Click "Members" in that bar
3. Place the names of the Users to be in this group in the text field under "Add Users"
4. [Submit] and you should get a green box

Finding Group ID

1. Under General tab click on "Manage Groups"
2. On the right you will see a bar with the special group you created. Point to "Members" in that bar
3. Within your browser's status bar look for the last number in the address, that is the ID. For example:
Source 6 <-- that 7 is the group ID of the group you created

Continued below...

Tips Phpbb

Open up posting.php from your forum folder. Make sure to do this in Notepad:

Look for:

Add after:

Then look for (lower down in posting.php):

and comment it out like this:

Next you need do some adjustments to current codes:

Remove that line and use this instead (change 76 to your special group ID):

Then one more time, remove this:

Replace it with this:

Maybe someone will make a clean Mod out of it in the future, but for now this works.

Phpbb Tips Gaming Video & Issues Computer

Results

Guests see this CAPTCHA when posting, but so too will Registered Members if you want to make it hard for them as well (for whatever reason), but you can limit that to special groups so they do not see the CAPTCHA seen below:

Tips Phpbb

That is helpful code JB, I'm sure it can be applied to something useful for one of my phpbb communities. Maybe you should submit it as a mod.

Tips Phpbb

I did it for a client, not really a PhpBB fan so I just offer it here for whomever wants it.

Phpbb Tips

In case anyone needs it I found this helpful in knowing which functions did what in PhpBB 2 at a glance: PhpBB 2.0 Database Abstraction Layer. I don't know if this is the same for PhpBB 3.